Time-division duplex (TDD) methods emulate full duplex communication over a half duplex communication link. In particular, signals that are communicated from a first device to a second device occur at a different time than when signals are communicated from the second device to the first device. Typically, one direction of communication is referred to as the “downlink” direction (and the corresponding signals are referred to here as “downlink signals” or “downlink communications”), and the other direction of communication is referred to as the “uplink” direction (and the corresponding signals are referred to here as “uplink signals” or “uplink communications”). For example, in some systems, separate downlink and uplink timeslots or sub-frames are assigned.
Many systems use TDD for communication. For example, some implementations of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard use TDD for communication of wireless radio frequency signals. For example, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) Forum has promulgated implementation profiles based on IEEE 802.16 that use TDD. In one such WIMAX profile, the amount of time assigned to communications in each direction is dynamically allocated. In other words, as the amount of uplink data increases more bandwidth in the form of a larger sub-frame is allocated to the uplink direction.
In order for successful communication between devices in a TDD system, the devices need to synchronize when they switch from communicating in the downlink direction to communicating in the uplink direction and when they switch from communicating in the uplink direction to communicating in the downlink direction. Otherwise, signals will be lost due to interference or missed because each device was not switched to the same signal direction. The IEEE 802.16 standard specifies the use of global positioning system (GPS) receivers to provide a precise time reference for synchronizing each device. Moreover, the IEEE 802.16 standard also contemplates that each device has the ability to demodulate and decode IEEE 802.16 frames and sub-frames in order to extract information indicating how long each of the downlink and uplink sub-frames will be. The extracted information is also used to determine when to switch communication directions.
In some locations, there may be issues with sending and receiving WIMAX signals. For example, there may be WIMAX coverage issues within buildings (such as office and apartment buildings, hospitals, and airports). One way to improve RF coverage within buildings makes use of a frequency translating distributed antenna system (DAS). For example, in one such distributed antenna system, downlink RF signals received at a donor antenna located on the roof of a building are down converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal by a hub unit and distributed over transport cabling (for example, optical fiber, coaxial cable, CATV cable, twisted-pair cabling) to a remote antenna unit located within the building. The downlink IF signals received at the remote antenna unit are up converted back to the original RF frequency and radiated from a remote antenna. Similarly, uplink RF signals received at the remote antenna are down converted by the remote antenna unit to IF signals and transported over transport cabling back to the hub unit. The uplink IF signals received at the hub unit are up converted back to the original RF frequency and radiated from the donor antenna. One example of such a distributed antenna system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,810.
In addition, some systems also use TDD for communication with upstream devices coupled to the main hub, such as a base station or repeater. However, some such upstream devices are not configured for TDD and, thus, cannot be successfully connected to the hub. For example, some upstream devices are configured with two separate interfaces for simplex rather than duplex operation. In order to enable connection with such devices, a combiner is typically placed between the simplex device and the hub. The combiner converts between time-division duplexed signals and simplex signals. However, an additional cost is incurred for each network device which requires a combiner to successfully connect to the hub.